Syrian Dissidents Encounter Attacks with BlackShades Trojan

One fresh RAT dubbed BlackShades, which's capable of spying on computer operations, has been found attacking people protesting against the Syrian regime amidst continuing violence countrywide, published scmagazine.com.au dated June 21, 2012. Reportedly, for distributing the BlackShades, attackers have been hijacking Skype accounts.

A University-of-Toronto research team called The Citizen Lab that works on cyber safety's relation with human rights said that the Trojan distributors enticed dissidents to make them load BlackShades through one .pif download file. The team described that while the bait was a so-called trustworthy entity connecting through Skype, the download file posed as a vital video.

Notably, when loaded, the Trojan planted more malware, which could take screenshots and record keystrokes from the remote, EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) additionally explained. EFF is one digital advocacy syndicate, which runs without profit motive, as well as joined The Citizen Lab in carrying out the latest research.

EFF said that the clues its researchers gathered indicated that the new malevolent campaign was the effort of the same Web-intruders who supported the Syrian government while launching an assault that distributed a phony YouTube video the Foundation reported during March 2012. The assault enticed Syrian activists with opposition-favoring movie ads, while deceptively filched the particulars for accessing their YouTube accounts as also planted spyware masquerading like an update for Adobe Flash Player. One more assault unleashed, contaminated files supposedly giving an elaborate plan for helping reconstruct the Aleppo City.

Furthermore according to EFF, as BlackShades Trojan's remote-control admission into end-users' computers lets hackers plant more spyware, it isn't enough to run anti-virus software or erase the files for sanitizing the infected PCs. Instead EFF suggests installing the Operating System again while resetting all passwords associated with the end-users' accounts, which they accessed following the contamination.

Importantly, Syrian activists are being urged for exercising care while taking down files online despite them being from friends. With increased skill towards utilizing satellite networks, encryption, as also other tools by the Syrians opposing the Assad regime for evading its online spying abilities, malware scams by the supporters of the Syrian government are increasing, alerts EFF.